3rd Rock From The Sun: The 10 Most Ridiculous Things Dick Solomon Did

The crew of aliens on 3rd Rock From the Sun sent to investigate Earth turned out to be some of the dumbest people on the planet. Each one of them was ridiculous in their own way, yet somehow the most ridiculous of them all was their leader, Dick Solomon. He was a terrible father and husband, a awful boyfriend and an even worse physics professor.

Yet, somehow he ended up as the leader of the mission, though things made more sense when it was revealed that he was the son of the Big Giant Head. Dick has done some impressively absurd things, many of them to Mary Albright.

10 Steals Mary’s Superbowl Tickets

One of the other alien incursions on Earth during the Solomon’s time there was by a group of Venusians. Their expressed goal was to steal all of Earth’s stuff by wooing the men of the species. This wasn’t difficult as the Venusians were all played by prominent super models of the era.

The Venusian’s plan culminated at the Super Bowl, which meant Tom, Dick and Harry needed a way in to stop them. As such, they stole Mary’s tickets, ruining her trip and leaving her with no way into the game.

9 Dick Kills Mary’s Fish

When Mary was going out of town, she asked her assistant Nina to take care of her fish. This was the normal methodology, a tried and true system between two co-workers and friends. Then, Dick got in the middle of it. He demanded to take care of the fish, complaining until Mary relented.

Dick remembered to feed the fish but also bought them a new friend, a much larger fish that ate them all. Naturally, Mary wasn’t not particularly happy with this situation so Dick had to make up for it somehow.

8 Dick Buys Mary A Dog

As an apology for killing Mary’s fish, Dick bought her a full grown Golden Labrador named Pepper. This dog was so smitten with Mary that it immediately mounted her leg and attempted to mate with it. This made Dick extremely happy as he felt the new friends were bonding, which they were in a way.

While Pepper wasn’t in every episode of the series after that point, he did reappear from time to time to torment Mary and reassert his amorous intentions.

7 Taking Out A Popup Book

This is one of Dick’s most befuddling moments. Early in one episode, Dick was trying to read a children’s popup book. The only problem was that the popup scenes seemed to be scaring the living wits out of him every time he opened the book.

Most children would have worked out what was going on after a couple of attempts but not Dick Solomon. Instead, he broke out a rubber mallet and beat the popup pages in the book to death. If nothing else, Dick made his point to that children’s book.

6 Confounding His Class

In this case, it’s not so much once specific incident as six years of ongoing torment. You truly have to pity the students in Dick Solomon’s physics class. There’s no doubt that he’s a genius with a masterful knowledge of physics but he seems largely incapable of explaining it. That’s probably why the same group of people were in his class year after year.

Ultimately, this is a testament to the overall mediocrity of Pendleton University as they don’t seem to care that one of their main professors is accomplishing nothing. He probably should been teaching at Greendale Community College.

5 Fake/Real Leaves Mary For Renata

Throughout her life, Mary has been tormented by her family but none have vexed her more than her sister Renata. Their rivalry ran so deep that Renata built a new building on the Pendleton campus just to block Mary’s view from her office.

To get revenge, Dick planned on fake leaving Mary for Renata as a setup but instead really left Mary. He eventually played it off as all part of his plan but Dick is capricious at best. If things had worked out with Renata, he probably would have walked away for good.

4 Directing The School Play

When Tommy wanted to get a part in the school play, Dick stepped in as the director and dragged Nina along with him. The whole point was to give Tommy the leading role so he could make out with his girlfriend on the stage.

Instead, Dick cast someone else, then became an over the top stereotypical director. He was so ludicrous that he was eventually fired and replaced with the school’s football coach played by Mike Ditka. If there’s one thing Mike Ditka knows, it’s good live theatre.

3 Costs Mary Her Job

Due to her hard work and commitment to Pendleton, Mary was eventually promoted to Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. Unfortunately, she forgot that she was in a relationship with Dick Solomon. He convinced Mary that her friend Judith was after her job and trying to bring her down.

Mary and Dick broke into Judith’s office after hours looking for proof, only to get caught. Dick abandoned Mary and left her holding the bag. As a result, she lost her job as Dean and had to return to being a professor.

2 Family Reunion

When Dick received an invitation to a family reunion meant for a different Dick Solomon, he did the only logical thing and went to the event. He even dragged his whole family, including Mary, to the reunion. It was a strange, awkward experience as Dick explored what it was like to be part of a larger family unit.

But the weird thing was that these people were looking for someone that they were actually related to. Once the aliens left Earth, one can’t help but wonder what Dick’s new family thought when he disappeared on them, again.

1 Covered In Toner

Dick was horrific at doing normal, everyday things. A prime example of this was the popup book incident. But his everyday problems popped up again when he tried to use the copier at work, something he had to do himself because he alienated Nina. Dick’s frustrations led him to beat the machine with its own toner cartridge. He was forced to go to Nina’s house and beg for forgiveness.

Conveniently, everything in Nina’s house is white or cream colored. Dick proceeded to cover it all in toner, including Nina’s lovely outfit, leaving her in tears.